Cortical oscillatory responses do not affect visual segmentation

We tested the hypothesis that synchronization of oscillatory responses between populations of visually driven neurons could be the basis for visual segmentation and perceptual grouping. We reasoned that oscillations in response induced by flickering visual targets should have an effect on visual per...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vision research (Oxford) 1996-02, Vol.36 (4), p.539-544
Main Authors: Kiper, Daniel C., Gegenfurtner, Karl R., Movshon, J. Anthony
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Cortical oscillations
Differential Threshold - physiology
Electrophysiology
Flicker
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Neurons - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Rotation
Space life sciences
Time Factors
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Visual segmentation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We tested the hypothesis that synchronization of oscillatory responses between populations of visually driven neurons could be the basis for visual segmentation and perceptual grouping. We reasoned that oscillations in response induced by flickering visual targets should have an effect on visual performance in these tasks. We therefore measured the psychophysical performance of human subjects in a texture segregation task (Expt I) and in a perceptual grouping task (Expt II). In both experiments, the elements composing the stimuli were flickered and presented in a variety of flicker conditions. These experimental conditions were designed to either interfere with naturally occuring synchronization of oscillations, or to induce synchronization and bias a subject's perceptual judgement. Performance in these tasks was neither helped nor hindered by the temporal pattern of flicker. These results suggest that physiologically observed oscillatory responses are unrelated to the processes underlying visual segmentation and perceptual grouping.
ISSN:0042-6989
1878-5646
DOI:10.1016/0042-6989(95)00135-2